Well itís been 5 months since the camp fees increased from the $2.00 per person per night to $4.00. Discussions at the time advised that patrolling and enforcing would eventuate, but in the early days of change, campers were given the opportunity to get used to the new fee structure.

Some recent research at the campgrounds does tend to point toward the fact that many of the people who werenít paying before, probably still arenít paying. Lots of tents with no payment receipts. Two bucks was cheap, 4 bucks is still cheap and 5 months is a reasonable amount of time to get used to the new fee structure. Lots of people, climbers and campers included, backed this and put effort into this favourable outcome.

Easter is always a particularly busy time at Araps and this will mean there are more patrols and ranger presence due to visitor numbers and workload. With fines for non payment of fees being a real possibility, there could be some unhappy campers. It would be a shame to see something that we worked for and viewed as successful, leaving a nasty taste in the mouth.

On 26/03/2013 Miguel75 wrote:>I reckon non-paying visitors should be woken up every morning by the gentle>tinkling of a set of hexes, which are tied to at least one rabid possum>and thrown into their tent.>>A few mornings of that should steer them towards payment as a viable alternative;)

They would probably want to be woken up by the hex wearing rabid possum! Better that than being woken up with a fine which for non payment of camp fees can can be either $176.05 or $704.20!

Have a great Easter break everyone and let your tent neighbour know that there will be some checking going on. Bring some change for the fees box so you aren't caught out.

On 27/03/2013 access t wrote:>They would probably want to be woken up by the hex wearing rabid possum!> Better that than being woken up with a fine which for non payment of camp>fees can can be either $176.05 or $704.20!

Out of curiosity where did you get those numbers from? Because the sign that went up in the pines last year stated a fine of $80.

Also if you try and find info on fines on the Parks Vic website you get bounced to the DSE where there is a large spreadsheet, but nowhere on there does it list fines for failure to pay camping fees in a state park. There are fines about not following signs which they could cite you under, but the DSE lists a single fine unit to be $140.84, so any fine should be a clean multiple of that number.

On 27/03/2013 dawyndham wrote:>On 27/03/2013 access t wrote:>>They would probably want to be woken up by the hex wearing rabid possum!>> Better that than being woken up with a fine which for non payment of>camp>>fees can can be either $176.05 or $704.20! >>Out of curiosity where did you get those numbers from? Because the sign>that went up in the pines last year stated a fine of $80. >>Also if you try and find info on fines on the Parks Vic website you get>bounced to the DSE where there is a large spreadsheet, but nowhere on there>does it list fines for failure to pay camping fees in a state park. There>are fines about not following signs which they could site you under, but>the DSE lists a single fine unit to be $140.84, so any fine should be a>clean multiple of that number.

It does sound high doesn't it? Passed down from the compliance and enforcement people at PV. To be honest, I don't have the time at the moment to go hunting down confirmation of which fines are correct. There never seems to be one easy place to go to that gives correct info on this kind of stuff. Granted there is a difference in price but either way, I wouldn't want to be getting any of them.